Ask-a-Grower Podcast #23-Organic Bountea

Transcription

Introducing Organic Bountea

We’re here with Seth from Organic Bountea: www.bountea.com Can you tell us a little bit about Bountea?

I’d love to. Bountea is a compost tea system with complementary nutrients. It’s a
complete growing system for your plants.

How many products do you have?

Officially we have 9, but we have quite a few combinations that might make a few
other products.

Can you highlight those?

Sure. Our base product is the Alaskan Humus – a sustainably harvested humus product
out of Alaska that has been washed over by volcanic glaciers; it’s
just a chalk full of volcanic minerals. We use that as our biological base, we feed that
with the activator, the bio activator. It’s the sugars that feed the biology. And we put that
in an actively aerated aerobic environment that allows the biology to just recreate itself
over and over again. And we feed that living solution to the plants.

Why does the living solution help so much?

Well, the living solution really is what soil consists of. There are a bunch of different
layers of biology that are all feeding on each other, assisting each other and breaking
down the mineral compositions in the soil and allowing the plant to up-take bio available
nutrients. That is the key for Bountea, the bio availability.
The next product beyond the bio activator and the humus is a fungal activator. You
want to increase the amount of fungus that is in your soil; because fungus breaks down
phosphorus and potassium and calcium and if you want to break down those heavy bloom
nutrients, a load of fungus is the great way to do it. So the fungal activator is how we do
that.
Our next products are vegetative formula for fertilizer, it’s called M3 marine mineral
magic, it’s a 6-0-0 natural high nitrogen formula; the bacteria loves nitrogen and that
helps the vegetative state for your plant, the green growth. Then we have the B3 which is
a higher phosphorus potassium product; so that really helps to set bloom, set flower node
sites, allow for healthy blossoms; so those 2 fertilizers are really complete systems for
growing any kind of plant. Whether using one or the other or the 2 of them combined,
that will covers all you fertilizer needs. So the Bountea Better Bloom, the B3 is high
phosphorus potassium product, really great for setting flower node sites and assisting a
healthy bloom.
We have a Superstart for planting and transplanting. I use a handful of humus and a pinch
of Superstart underneath your root bulbs when you are planting or transplanting and that
really gives your plant a superstart.
We have Superfood, not to be confused with Superstart. It’s for the those that want to get
their house plants an easy boost – it has a little bit of nutrition, a little bit of biology and
food for that biology. It’s a pressed tab – you throw one tab into a gallon of water and feed
that to your house plants. I have a ton of orchids and I’ve been doing it for the last year
and almost all my orchids are reflowering, which is amazing.
So Rootweb is a mycorrhizae product; we have endo-mycorrhizae and ecto-mycorrhizae
and trichoderma. Tricoderma is a predatory fungus. It’s a product you want to use once
in a grow cycle, or if it’s an outdoor environment, maybe once or twice a year at most.
Once the fungus roots have established, they’re there and they cultivate, then they’re assisting that nutrient and uptake
through the root system into the plant.

Can you tell us a little bit about the brew kit?

The brew kit is a great introductory way to get involved with compost tea at home. We
really encourage you to brew your tea at home, in your own timing, so it’s as fresh as
possible. What you get with that is an air pump and a diffuser, the vessel, the bucket,
the pale to brew your tea in. Inside that kit you get enough tea to brew 12 gallons or 3-
4 gallons brews. The humus and the activator – the activator again, being the food source for the humus that contains
the biology and mineral content. You brew that, put those two together, brew for 24 h
and then if you want to enhance that brew cycle, we give you the root web – which is the
fungus roots that allow that mycorrhizae, allows for that nutrient up-take – and then our
M3 which really enhances the compost tea system by giving it a fertilizer; it’s necessary
to the plants’ growth, as you all know in this industry.

So is the brewing time the same for all the products?

What happens is, you will brew your humisoil and activator for 24 hours, that’s our general time.
There is some variable in that – if it’s cold outside, it may take longer to brew, if it’s hot
out it might be a little shorter, but 24 hours is right in the middle. You can always brew 24 hours
and come out with a consistent brew. If you want to add any other products to the
brew – whether ours or anything else – I would do it in the last hour of the brew. Ours are all
soluble, go into the solution nicely, are suspended there and get a nice even distribution
of the M3 or the B3.
The Rootweb being mycorrhizae water is not a proper home for mycorrhizae, for fungus;
there is a high level of bacteria in there, you just want to add it in the last few minutes
and allow it to get into the solution and distribute it. Once the fungal high phase starts to
grow and once the seed has germinated, that bacteria starts feeding on it, poking holes in
it and destroying it.

With all those living things in these teas, is tap water ok, because of Chlorine, chloramines?

It’s definitely not the best. We do have a way of breaking chloramine and eliminating
chlorine. Chlorine is pretty easy to do, Chloramine is tougher – it’s a bond between ammonia and
chlorine. We have a unit called the Bounty Hydrate, which is an inline system – no
electricity, no waste water, just plug it inline. The one that we offer is between 3-5
gallons per min. But having structured water is more important for biology because it get’s
motility, moves around easily, they’ll start to eat and reproduce get through that life cycle faster, so
you will get higher levels of the biology faster. With the Bounty Hydrate, the three enhancing opportunities that it presents are:
negative ionization – it allows you to get water that has higher PPM, in a state that
the whatever those minerals are that are creating that TDS, that parts per million,
is now available to your plants; so you don’t have to strip it down to zero. You can allow up to 500 PPM and still make all that mineral available to the plants. We have far infared technology – using the same kind of energy that the sungives off.
Obviously the plants enjoy that exchange. Then we can break the bond between the
hydrogen and oxygen and super oxygenate the water. So it’s great for
all applications, but for hydro it’s amazing. So 2 to 5 gallons a minute, no electricity,
no waste water, great inline system. It’s the appropriate size for most rooms.

Is there a difference in using these teas indoors or outdoors?

The teas are an enhancement for indoor growing systems. I encourage people to stick
with what they know and continue to do that. You can generally lessen the amount of
nutrients that you are using. Most people are a little overboard with how much nutrients
going into their indoor systems and then add the Bountea once a week. So do you
nutrients, then add Bountea, allow the Bountea biology to break up that nutrient that you
put in there. Then keep that cycle, one feeding a week, it’s all you really need for the
Bountea.
As most people know, we have 9 Guinness world records for outdoors, so for outdoor it’s all
you need.

You covered the water temperature, but what about the PH?

You do not have to mess with the PH for the Bountea product, it will level itself out and
it’ll be neutral. I wouldn’t recommend playing with acids or bases. If
you get a high mountain spring water quality that’s the best. But if not, that’s okay, the Bountea hydrate is the
best thing. I would rather see someone use tap water and get the chlorine out and then
use RO, because RO takes the structure out of the water. If you want to use a RO system,
that is fine, but put something inline to structure the water.

Something like what?

Some people use the crystal technology, the bio ceramic technology also. There are
several water structure availabilities for people.

Wow. We need to have a whole new conversation on water structure at some point, because I don’t think that’s covered nearly enough. Can you tell us something about the history of the company?

The company has been around for 5 years. Prior to that, it was John Evans – he has the 9
Guinness world records for giant vegetables. 400 plus first place prizes for good looking,
good tasting vegetables. There was a huge group of people from all over the USA that want
to show off of how good their produce is (as we all do). So he was doing his thing, he
was at his pentacle of his experience. So people started asking him how he does it, give
them advice. So he put together a couple of brew systems, offered his ingredients; then
his brother Roland got involved. He suggested expanding the business. Mariah also got
involved; she helped in organizing the company, giving it a professional structure. Then I
came along recommending the Hydroponics stores in California, so I started taking out the
products to California. And we’ve had a good trajectory since then, for five years into
that process.

The feedback from the indoor gardening market, specifically people that may be here at the Max Yield show, is that they have loved it.

Yes. Everyone that tries it, loves it and becomes a repeat customer. Our customers always come
back for more. You know, it’s one of those secret recipes; many people do what they
were taught to do, to get the plant to really express itself to its fullest nature. Bountea is
one of those secret recipes.

Thank you so much Seth for coming and talking to us. We really appreciate it. We love Bountea at SD hydroponics. Folks if you would like to buy Organic Bountea, we definitely carry it.

One thought on “Ask-a-Grower Podcast #23-Organic Bountea”

Very interesting read… and I must say the Bountea System is quite impressive. I have been growing with it for roughly 3 months now and have had unbelievable results. I have brought plants back from certain death with this stuff after a transplant with the recommended superstart and humisoil.

One thing that I am a bit dismayed about though is the whole “structured water” thing. I have used nothing but RO water for brewing and have seen no ill effects from it. I use RO water for everything including drinking and have had zero health problems due to this. After doing some research and reading some peer reviewed papers on structured water , there is zero evidence that supports the outlandish claims asserted by sellers of these products.As a matter of fact, there is very little evidence of water existing in “structure” for any period time long enough to benefit from. What say you?